Skirmish at the Motorcycle Shop
The Skirmish at the Motorcycle Shop was a skirmish between elements of the 2nd Massachusetts Militia Regiment and a Skitter and harnessed teens it controlled. Prelude Needing more motorcycles, John Pope led a team of 2nd Massachusetts Militia Regiment fighters consisting of Tom and Hal Mason as well as Dai and Anthony to a motorcycle shop that hadn't been hit by the Skitters due to its remote location. Along the way, the team discovers a nest of four sleeping Skitters, but Tom refuses to kill them as it will draw too much attention to themselves. As the team gathers supplies and motorcycles, Pope knocks Dai out and escapes to use a full gas can and two grenades to blow up the sleeping Skitters. As feared, this draws the attention of another Skitter. Battle Instead of summoning Mechs to attack, the Skitter sends a group of six harnessed teens to the motorcycle shop armed with machine guns. The teens are spotted by Hal Mason while investigating the explosion caused by John Pope and he reports back to the other 2nd Massachusetts Militia Regiment fighters who are horrified by the sight. Tom Mason orders his team to hold their fire, unwilling to shoot kids and tells the others that there must be a Skitter nearby guiding the kids and giving them orders. As one, the kids open fire on the fighters who duck back into the shop, but not before Dai is hit in the leg. Cornered, Tom refuses Anthony's suggestion of killing the kids in self-defense and instead orders his men to search for the Skitter controlling the kids, feeling that if they stop the Skitter, they might be able to stop the kids. As the kids lower their weapons, Tom realizes that they move together and only seem to shoot when there's a target. To create a distraction, Tom creates a makeshift Molotov cocktail out of gasoline and a soda bottle and tosses it through the window and under a parked truck. Following the movement, the kids shoot the bottle, creating an explosion that consumes the truck. As the kids fire on the burning truck, Anthony and Hal flee on motorcycles from the shop. Though the kids fire upon them, Hal and Anthony are able to get safely away. As Tom and Dai board a motorcycle together, the Skitter emerges from the back of the shop to confront them and blocks their way out. Drawing a pistol, Tom shoots the Skitter several times in one of its arms, causing it to move out of the way out of pain. With the path clear, Tom makes a break for the front windows. The Skitter attempts to attack them as they go by, but Dai shoots it twice in the head at point-blank range with a sawed-off shotgun, killing the Skitter and allowing them to escape outside. With their controlling Skitter dead, the kids cease their attack. Unable to help them, Tom and Dai are forced to leave the kids behind and flee on their motorcycle. Aftermath Following the battle, Tom reports on it to Captain Daniel Weaver. Tom suggests to Weaver that the Skitter used the harnessed kids to attack rather than Mechs as a form of psychological warfare. Tom states his belief that this proves that the Skitters are more like humans than they realized and they now understand them more alongside the experiments done on the captured Skitter. Category:Season 1 Category:Battles